Sara Marcus Reads GIRLS TO THE FRONT With Jessica Hopper, author of The Girls Guide to Rocking

Published on September 24, 2010 0 Comments
Oct ’10
23
7:00 pm

GirlsFrontThe last great underground cultural movement of the pre-Internet age, Riot Grrrl revolutionized girlhood itself. In the early 1990s, young women were realizing that the equality they’d been promised was still elusive, and a newly resurgent right wing was turning feminism into the ultimate dirty word.

Riot Grrrl roared into the spotlight in 1991: an uncompromising movement of pissed-off girls with no patience for sexism and no intention of keeping quiet. They published zines, founded local groups, and organized national conventions, while fiercely prophetic punk bands such as Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, Huggy Bear, and Bikini Kill helped spread the word across the US and to Canada, Europe, and beyond.

GIRLS TO THE FRONT (Harper) is the first-ever history of Riot Grrrl—lyrical and infused with punk, it tells the story of a group of extraordinary young women coming of age and coming into their own. Part social history, part cultural criticism, and part collective biography, this passionate narrative takes us from the front row of a punk show to the stage of the Republican Convention; from a seedy strip club to the US Supreme Court. It tells the tale of a time when America thought feminism was dead, but a generation of noisy girls rose up to prove everybody wrong. Deftly weaving together a wide range of political and cultural histories, this is a dynamic chronicle not just of a movement but of an era.

Also joining Sara is Jessica Hopper, author of The Girls Guide to Rocking (Workman Books).

For more info: www.girlstothefront.com

Larry-bob Roberts Reads From The International Homosexual Conspiracy

Published on September 24, 2010 0 Comments
Oct ’10
20
7:00 pm

IntlHomoConsLarry-bob Roberts is into sparking culture, politics, and creating fusions between the two. Since 1989, he has been publishing in print (and now online) the queer culture zine, Holy Titclamps. In The International Homosexual Conspiracy, a series of cultural polemics on an unexpected array of contemporary topics — from mistaken first impressions (“Presumed Hetero Unless Proven Gay”) to sustainable yet unaffordable pants (“Socially Responsible Pants”) to critiques of bourgeois mindsets (“Middle Class Writer”) — author Larry-bob Roberts offers hilarious insights into the absurdities of modern life and queer culture. His humorous observations are destined to jostle readers’ complacency and confirm their worst suspicions.

Straight people need this book to learn what one of those freaky queers thinks. Mainstream gays need this book to see that there are other ways of expressing homosexuality culturally. Non-mainstream queers need this book to read something that reflects their own points of view. Readers with short attention spans need this book because the chapters are in bite-sized pieces. Fans of satire need this book for a good laugh. Fundamentalist Christians need this book as evidence of the decadence of modern society. In a humorously confrontational way, The International Homosexual Conspiracy is not only raging, but also engaging.

“Astute, as well as relatively ego-free, Roberts is one of the gay anarchist movement’s clearest
thinkers.” — Dennis Cooper, author of Closer

For more info: http://www.holytitclamps.com

Richard Thomas Reads From Transubstantiate with Otherworld Authors

Published on September 24, 2010 0 Comments
Oct ’10
16
7:00 pm

TransubstantiateRichard Thomas’s Transubstantiate constructs a collection of voices that reveals a disturbing futuristic vision of terror and beauty. The novel’s island paradise, its imprisoned inhabitants, and the digital presence that works to control them, merge with ancient forces of rite and belief to create a surreal and devastating collage. This is a work that captures a world we almost know, its realities enough to raise an uneasy sense of potentiality. Richard Thomas was the winner of the ChiZine Publications 2009 “Enter the World of Filaria” contest.  His short story “Maker of Flight” was chosen by Filaria author Brent Hayward and Bram Stoker Award-Winning editor Brett Alexander Savory.  Some of his publishing credits include Cemetery Dance (Shivers VI, early 2010), Living Dead Press (Eternal Night: A Vampire Anthology), 3:AM Magazine, Word Riot, Dogmatika, The Oddville Press, Colored Chalk, Cause & Effect, Gold Dust, Vain, Nefarious Muse, Troubadour 21, Cherry Bleeds and Opium. In his spare time he edits and designs for Colored Chalk and Sideshow Fables and is a workshop moderator at The Cult (chuckpalahniuk.net). He is currently writing his second novel, a neo-noir, transgressive thriller entitled Disintegration.  Richard is also a member of the Horror Writers Association.

“Transubstantiate is, is — it’s a visual: that 2001 baby opening its eyes in the monolith, but the monolith is shrouded in this story of loss and hope and identity, and encoded in the cadence of that story, if you listen close, is the genetic map with which to draw this impossible celestial infant, opening its eyes on the page, looking right into you.”  Stephen Graham Jones, All the Beautiful Sinners, Demon Theory, The Ones That Got Away

“Transubstantiate is an intricately-woven dystopian thriller, with every thread pulled tight. This is a solid debut from Richard Thomas.”
—Craig Clevenger, The Contortionist’s Handbook and Dermaphoria

Also joining the bill is Chicago author Laura Griffith, who will read from her book Remember, David Rosenstein all the way from Colorado to read from newly released The Silk Worm, and Nik Korpon from his soon to be released Stay God! (Otherworld Publications).

For more info: http://www.otherworldpublications.com

J.Thomas Tucker reads from The Datemaker Chronicles

Published on September 22, 2010 0 Comments
Nov ’10
13
7:00 pm

DatemkrChron

J. Thomas Tucker hails from Central Iowa. The area is not exactly a melting pot of liberals, but he was drawn into the Woodstock culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Tucker bought into “Hippiedom” and experimented with more than his share of illegal substances. His understanding of this world and the mind of the addict led him to write this story. The Datemaker Chronicles is an embellished true story. Tucker’s journeys across the United States were documented by handwritten notes following the “heroine” Elizabeth Jones (Not her real name) and were transcripted into print over a seven-year period. Tucker’s influences are J.D. Salinger, Cormac McCarthy, The Beatles, and the First Amendment.

No one ever grows up dreaming of becoming a junkie, yet there are plenty of addicts in the world. Elizabeth Jones is one of them. Liz is one smart cookie; just ask her. She has the world in the palm of her hand, but when her reckless ways put her on a one-way street heading to the darkest back alleys of the ghetto, she won’t return and never attempts to make a comeback. Life on the streets is like that. In her case, it swallowed her whole. Yet, for Elizabeth, it was not always like that. She had been married once. She wore fine clothes and attended exclusive soirees, but four years into a nasty habit of smoking crack changed her style—and her fancy. A gluttonous, insatiable addict, her sexual proclivities allow her to support her drug use by selling her body without much ado. With a daughter in the fray, this unabashedly scandalous and loosely biographical account of drug addiction is truly eye opening. If you are a user or know someone who is, this book paints a realistic picture of what life is like for a strung-out, middle-aged junkie. In it, Tucker examines addiction and the fall of a woman who was a willing accomplice to her own demise and paid dearly to live life in the fast lane.

For more info: http://www.jthomastucker.com

Weekly Top 10

Published on September 22, 2010 0 Comments
Tao Lin Endorses Jeffrey Brown's Clumsy

Tao Lin Endorses Jeffrey Brown's Clumsy

1. Richard Yates by Tao Lin (Melville) $14.95

2. Friends Make the Best Medicine by The Icarus Project $2.50

3. Juxtapoz #117 Oct 10 $5.99

4. Big Questions #14 Title and Deed by Anders Nilsen (D+Q) $7.95

5. Cabinet #38 Islands $12.00 – No man is an island, but this issue of Cabinet may be.

6. List #14 Fine For Now by Ramsey $4.00 – Reasons to love the new issue of List: *The drawings just keep getting better,*Highly logical, yet intimately personal *Good times, good foods, good dogs *Stories broken down and organized into compelling, must-read-more formats *Dreams, plans and schemes plotted in charming detail *Homemade geography and chronology charts all woven gracefully into list-making *Heartmending *Listy, yet non-hierarchical *Best one yet.

7. Proximity #7 A Catalog of Strategies $12.00 – An Art Communi-que on the Communit-tay- Chicago-centric yet limitless in scope, this issue is a Catalog of Strategies, split nicely between a recource/contact directory and focus articles pertaining to group and interventionist art. Useful on all fronts, and tremendously engaging too. -EF

8. Prison Pit Book 2 by Johnny Ryan (Fantagraphics) $12.99

9. If Youre Feeling Sinister by Scott Plagenhoef (Continuum) $12.95 – If You’re Feeling Sinister includes interviews with band members, producers, management, and a range of fans, and provides perspective on how Belle & Sebastian transformed themselves, over the space of a decade, from an underground, slightly shambolic cult secret into a polished, highly entertaining, mainstream pop group.

10. Maximumrocknroll #330 Fall 10 $4.00